Martin Truex Jr gets the Hat Trick at Vegas as Busch Leaves Bloodied
By Kent Whitaker:
There are plenty of story lines coming out of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway weekend. Stewart-Haas Racing had cars with issues, Keselowski had car problems at the end, and several young guns were in the hunt for a win. Plus, a few big names had horrible days, Kyle Busch ends up with a bloody face, and Martin Truex Jr gets a hat trick!
Sure, there was a lot of green flag runs that basically came down to chasing the leader. But even those seemed interesting because I was constantly waiting to see what kind of bad luck would hit Truex after having a dominate day. In the end, he came out as the winner of all three stages of the race! In hockey, the scoring of three goals is a “hat trick” for those that didn’t know. Truex said it was nice to come out on the good side for once.
“We definitely had our share of races where we’ve dominated and gave one away, and it looked like today was going to be another one of those,” said Truex, who lost the lead to Brad Keselowski after a late race restart. “The runs just didn’t work out the way we needed them. We were struggling on the really long runs. I was out of control, and Brad was really good on the long run. I hate that he had problems. He was strong and we weren’t going to do anything with him, but then he lost the brakes or something. A little bit of a gift, but we’ve given some away, so it feels good to come out on the good end for once.”
The sweep pushed Truex way up the leader board in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to forth behind Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliot. Kevin Harvick, the leader heading into the race, dropped down to the eighth spot.
About Kyle and Joey:
Kyle Busch and Joey Lagano have had their share of issues over the years but this incident took me by surprise. Kyle has been well behaved over the last couple of seasons since breaking his legs in Daytona. Plus, getting married and having a family seems to have helped him grow up a little bit.
So, when the two were fighting for position at the end of the race and Joey got loose sending Kyle spinning it was obvious that it was not intentional. I didn’t even think twice about Kyle reverting to his old way. I was waiting to see Truex celebrating.
But then, cameras picked up Kyle swinging away at Joey in the pits and things got a bit crazy. Soon Busch was being led away from the fight with a bloodied forehead while Joey gave a smiling interview on National TV.
In truth, this is not a big deal in my opinion. Fights have been part of racing since the beginning of racing. It will always be part of racing. My only concern is this. From what I could see it looked like a couple of sucker kicks from crewmen may have been involved. That’s probably where NASCAR will look at issuing penalties.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“Kent Whitaker, often called ‘the Deck Chef’ is a sportswriter, culinary writer, and cookbook author with fourteen titles. He covers NASCAR, racing in general, Football, barbecue, grilling, and tailgating. You can visit him on The Deck Chef .”